Attack on Pearl Harbor
. Two attacking Japanese planes can be seen: one over and one over the Naval Yard. |date= |place=Primarily Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, U.S. |result= Major Japanese tactical victory; precipitated the entrance of the United States into World War II, other consequences |combatant1= |combatant2= |commander1= ADM Husband E. Kimmel LTG Walter Short |commander2= VADM Chūichi Nagumo ADM Isoroku Yamamoto CDR Mitsuo Fuchida |strength1=8 battleships 8 cruisers 30 destroyers 4 submarines 3 USCG cutters , USCGC Reliance (WSC-150), USCGC Tiger (WSC-152). |group=nb}} 47 other ships ≈390 aircraft |strength2='Mobile Unit:' 6 aircraft carriers 2 battleships 2 heavy cruisers 1 light cruiser 9 destroyers 8 tankers 23 fleet submarines 5 midget submarines 414 aircraft |casualties1=4 battleships sunk 4 battleships damaged 1 ex-battleship sunk 1 harbor tug sunk 3 cruisers damaged 3 destroyers damaged 3 other ships damaged 188 aircraft destroyed 159 aircraft damaged 2,335 killed 1,143 wounded |casualties2=4 midget submarines sunk 1 midget submarine grounded 29 aircraft destroyed 74 aircraft damaged 64 killed 1 sailor captured . |notes= Civilian casualties 68 killed 35 wounded 3 aircraft shot down}} The Attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' formal entry into World War II. The Japanese military leadership referred to the attack as the Hawaii Operation and Operation AI,Prange, Gordon W., Goldstein, Donald, & Dillon, Katherine. The Pearl Harbor Papers (Brassey's, 2000), p. 17ff; Google Books entry on Prange et al.For the Japanese designator of Oahu. Wilford, Timothy. "Decoding Pearl Harbor", in The Northern Mariner, XII, #1 (January 2002), p. 32fn81. and as Operation Z during its planning.Fukudome, Shigeru, "Hawaii Operation". United States Naval Institute, Proceedings, 81 (December 1955), pp. 1315–1331 Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the U.S.-held Philippines, Guam and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Additionally, from the Japanese viewpoint, it was seen as a preemptive strike. The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (18:18 GMT). Prange et al. December 7, 1941, p. 174. The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers. All eight U.S. Navy battleships were damaged, with four sunk. All but were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, (AG-16, formerly BB-31); Utah was moored in the space intended to have been occupied by the aircraft carrier Enterprise which, returning with a task force, had been expected to enter the channel at 0730 on December 7; delayed by weather, the task force did not reach Pearl Harbor until dusk the following day. .|group=nb}} and one minelayer. 188 U.S. aircraft were destroyed; 2,403 Americans were killed and 1,178 others were wounded. Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section), were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. One Japanese sailor, Kazuo Sakamaki, was captured. Japan declared war on the United States on 8 December (9 December in Tokyo). The surprise attack came as a profound shock to the American people and led directly to the American entry into World War II in both the Pacific and European theaters. The following day, December 8, the United States declared war on Japan, and three days later, on December 11, Germany and Italy each declared war on the U.S. The U.S. responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. Domestic support for non-interventionism, which had been fading since the Fall of France in 1940,Braumoeller, Bear F. (2010) "The Myth of American Isolationism" Foreign Policy Analysis 6: 349–371. disappeared. There were numerous historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning, particularly while peace negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime. Battles * USS Arizona Memorial - Casualty List / Survivor List References Category:Attack on Pearl Harbor Category:1941 in Hawaii Category:1941 in the United States Category:Conflicts in 1941 Category:December 1941 events Category:United States Navy category:Hawaii